News & Stories: Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "The agreement allocates over $15 million in 2020–21 for early learning and child care investments in Manitoba. In particular, the province will continue to invest in creating inclusive child care spaces, maintain its free online Science of Early Development living textbook, expand its core professional development program and mentorship program for at-home providers, and create a one-time, $1.5 million COVID-19 Response Grant for facilities that have re-opened during the pandemic."

Excerpt: "Canada and Manitoba agree that the long term vision, principles and objectives for early learning and child care, which are set out in the Framework that is attached as an annex (Annex 1), will guide the investment of funds provided under this Agreement."

Excerpt: "Your government will develop a modern child care system and funding model that will enable and support the child care sector to grow in line with demand from Manitoba families, provide greater equity in the type of support given to families, and offer choices and flexibility that reflects the needs and challenges today’s parents face."

Excerpt: "The Manitoba government will provide $10 million for a new Pandemic Staffing Support Benefit to help address urgent staffing needs in the disability services, child-care and child welfare sectors, Families Minister Heather Stefanson announced today, while also highlighting a number of other initiatives in place for agencies that provide services to adults with disabilities."

Excerpt: "The regulations set out under Bill 9, the Community Child Care Standards Amendment Act (Enhanced Powers Respecting Governance and Accountability), will streamline the licensing process for child-care centres, strengthen provisions related to health and safety, better support inclusion and accessibility for children, and ensure financial accountability for child-care subsidies."

Excerpt: "The Manitoba government is investing an additional $50 million in school capital funding above the Budget 2020 commitment of $160 million for total funding of $210 million in kindergarten to Grade 12 school capital projects across the province, Education Minister Cliff Cullen and Central Services Minister Reg Helwer announced today."

Excerpt: "The minister noted the proposed legislation outlines five basic principles that must be taken into consideration when making decisions under the act including that: early learning and child-care services should ensure the health, safety, development and well-being of children; access to early learning and child-care services should enhance the economic opportunities available to parents; early learning and child-care services should be available on a continuum that is responsive to the diverse needs of families; promoting inclusion and respect, and accommodating diversity should be inherent in early learning and child-care services; and public funding should promote fiscal responsibility and the sustainability of early learning and child-care services."

Excerpt: "The Province is making major investments in 2021/22 to improve sustainability of the child care system, create child care spaces and give parents and caregivers more child care options to meet their needs. These investments include: $2.4 million in ongoing operating grants for 2,992 licensed nursery school spaces as part of the transition to a fair and equitable single funding model for all nursery school programs. As part of the new funding model, 96 nursery school programs (1,674 spaces) will receive an increase to their annual grant amount; $1.5 million in operating grant funding for 541 licensed spaces including 149 licensed spaces from capital projects which are targeted to open in 2021/22 for a total of over 2,600 new spaces by the way of capital projects receiving funding annually since 2016/17; and $95 thousand in operating support for 50 new home-based licensed child care spaces in 2021/22. To date, 225 spaces will have been opened over four years."

Excerpt: "Both projects have been supported by more than $1.6 million in capital grants through the 2020-21 Canada-Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, along with more than $405,000 in start-up and annual operating grant funding. The Canada-Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Agreement delivers more than $15 million annually for early learning and child-care investments in Manitoba. In total with the investments in 2020-21, the federal government will have provided Manitoba with a total of approximately $62.4 million over four years for early learning and child care. The governments of Canada and Manitoba are working to extend the current bilateral agreement to continue to support the early learning and child-care sector."

Excerpt: "The Manitoba Child Care Search (MCCS) is a user-friendly online tool that connects families with licensed child-care facilities to meet their immediate or future needs. The MCCS lists up-to-date information on licensed child-care centre vacancies, hours of operation and locations."

Excerpt: "The federal funding of more than $1.2 billion over the next five years will also fund critical services for Manitoba families and children and grow a strong and skilled workforce of early childhood educators, including through the creation of a wage grid to support the attraction and retentions of early childhood educators. This agreement will also lead to the creation of 1,700 extended hour child care spaces for families requiring child care in the evening and on weekends as well as guaranteed child care spaces for children whose parents are transitioning into regular employment. The agreement will also support an early learning and child care system that is fully inclusive of children with disabilities and children needing enhanced or individual supports, and ensure all families have equitable access to high-quality, affordable programming."

Excerpt: "Manitoba commits to use federal funds to demonstrate meaningful progress on improving quality, including: developing and implementing evidence based quality frameworks, standards, and tools for early learning and child care; developing a wage grid for Early Childhood Educators and committing to its implementation; increasing the percentage of child care workers providing regulated child care in the province who fully meet Manitoba’s certification requirements by 15 percentage points by fiscal year 2025 to 2026."